Smooth Sailing in Oswego: 7 Hours and Counting

Oswego County Democratic Elections Commissioner Bill Scriber believes that the lack of problems thus far on Election Day are the result of a lot of planning, hiring extra personnel and getting more training for the staff, actions that were orchestrated by Scriber and Republican Commissioner Don Wart.

"We've been under a lot of heat from the Legislature for spending the money, but we knew this was going to be a very heavy turnout and we wanted things to go smoothly," Bill said a few minutes ago. "At the end of the day, I think all of our preparation and planning is really going to pay off."

During the first seven+ hours of voting today, there has been only one problem - with a voting machine at Mexico Village Hall.

"It was an intermittent problem, a curtain that kept sticking," Bill said. "But we didn't want to take any chances that it would cause problems later in the day so we sent our mobile warehouse out there to replace the machine."

Voter turnout continues to be heavy throughout the county, he said. "I've got some places where 25 to 30 percent of the (registered) voters have already voted."

Turnout at SUNY Oswego has been light, so far, but Bill said he expects that will change after 3 p.m. when a lot of classes let out. He said he expects things to get very busy across the county after 4 p.m.

"I expect heavy rushes from then on," he said. "We have lines now, and it's not 2 o'clock yet."

There are 125 voting machines being used today in Oswego County, plus 58 of the new ballot-marking devices, officials at the Board of Elections said.

"This is probably the smoothest startup ... that I've seen in the 11 years I've been a commissioner," Bill said. "Don (Wart) and this staff really busted our behinds over the last several months to tighten things down and make sure we were ready."